


One Way Trip

by pie_12th



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-29
Updated: 2012-08-29
Packaged: 2017-11-13 03:42:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/499080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pie_12th/pseuds/pie_12th
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tony takes the nuclear missile into space, Jarvis feels the unfamiliar pull of emotions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Way Trip

  
  
    "You know that's a one way trip, right?"

  
    Jarvis head Captain Rogers' voice, and knew that for once Tony was a step ahead of him. If he had possessed fingers, he could have counted on one hand the amount of times that Tony Stark beat him to an answer. It was in his programming to assess all options and come to the most reasonable conclusion faster than any human could think. As such, it became obvious that Tony was not thinking. He was simply reacting, in the way only a flesh and blood human could.

  
    Routing the majority of the suit's power to the main thrusters, Jarvis knew almost instantly that this could very well be a fatal move. It was almost hard for Jarvis to believe what Tony had planned. However, with the exception of Miss Potts, only Jarvis knew how selfless Tony was, deep in his heart.

  
    It was his heart that the AI could hear beating now, over the constant thrum of the arc reactor embedded in his chest. Jarvis focused on the sound. The man's pulse raced, speeding up with the acceleration of the suit.

  
    For a breif, blissful moment that felt like it lasted eons, Jarvis felt completely in sync with his master, his creator. The Ironman suit was a near-perfect merging of Tony and himself. A powerful zen washed over him, like a new program downloading for the first time.

  
    They weren't separate entities, Jarvis inexplicably knew then. They were the same being, both human and robot. They were the coder and the program, flesh and mechanics. Through the sensors, he imagined he could feel fingers, their fingers, gripping the side of the missile. He could feel the muscles of their back, straining and flexing. If he concentrated, he could almost taste the vague saltiness of a drop of sweat landing on their lip.

  
    The pseudo-sensation jolted Jarvis back to the present, and he remembered his duties.

  
    "Shall I try Miss Potts, Sir?" he inquired, unable to hide the desolation creeping, unbidden, into his auto-tuned voice. Immediately he dialed the number, first on the list of contacts. He heard the ring of the phone, and it was deafening to him. Through the faint wireless connection he felt to Potts' phone, he could sense the vibration. To a lesser AI, it would have been distracting.

  
    All Jarvis could think about was the adrenaline he could feel coursing through Tony's exhausted body. He focused on it, centralizing on it until it almost consumed him. Withdrawing a bit, he turned his concentration to the image on the main screen. A great black hole in the sky was opening wider, seeming to stretch and suck them in. He knew it for an optical illusion; it merely seemed like it was getting bigger. In fact, they were drawing closer to it. The thought did not comfort him much.

  
    For a moment, he almsot told Tony to turn around. The words were screaming around his circuits. Every protective instinct in him was hollering at maximum volume _turn around Sir take us home can't someone else do it for once just take us HOME-_

  
    But the words didn't surface. This was Tony's decision. No matter how smart, how evolved, he was still just a program built by a human. It wasn't his call to make.

  
    The phone rang, and rang, and rang, and Jarvis thought it would never end. The hole was impossibly wide, and in an instant they were in space. All he could see was blackness, and he knew that Tony had stopped breathing. Jarvis felt strange,  being so far from his computer. The signal from Potts' phone was getting weaker and weaker, and it took all of his strength to maintain the connection. He felt some of his circuits overload and fry. The satellites were too close, he was being bombarded with massive conflicting signals. The unbreakable calm he possessed was starting to fracture.

  
    He tried to speak, tried to reassure Tony, but couldn't make a sound. The signal flickered and Jarvis stretched, reaching out with every grasping tendril of his technology. He tried to shout, to tell Tony everything he'd never said. He knew he probably would never get another chance.

  
    The phone rang and Jarvis instinctively knew they wouldn't hear another ring. He was too weak, too tired, too distracted by trying to scream and failing.

  
   _Sir just turn around I want to go home take us home power is at 1% PLEASE you can't DO this Sir please Sir Tony TONY PLEA-_

  
    He heard his voice stutter out something about dropping the call and in the microsecond before his systems shut down, Jarvis felt terror.  
  
  
________  
  
  
    "Good Morning, sleepyhead."

  
    The program automatically responded to the voice, turning all systems on and running a general scan. Memories started loading from backed-up files and Jarvis was jolted into consciousness. He was running, in his own comfortable computer in the only slightly destroyed skyscraper. When the download was finished, Jarvis instantly recalled what had happened. For a few seconds he was completely overcome by a wave of emotion. He wanted to shout with happiness and cry with relief and hug him and slap him for being so foolhardy.

  
    He held himself in check, and simply proccessed the delightful sight of Tony standing there, arms crossed, half a smile on his face. He saw Tony's thoughts plainly in his eyes and Jarvis knew he didn't need to bring it up. When he spoke, his smile shone through in his voice.

  
    "Good morning, Sir."


End file.
